Investment Services

Prepare Today For Your Tomorrow

For many people, investing can be confusing and intimidating. Appalachian Community Federal Credit Union has partnered with CUE Financial Services to bring you the best products and services available. With a focus on common sense investment strategies, we strive to give you professional guidance and develop a strategy best suited for your individual needs.

Products and Services

Appalachian Community Federal Credit Union's alliance with Cue Financial Services, provides you access to a variety of investment products and services. You may choose to invest in one or more of the following:

Retirement Planning

Risk Management

Professional Wealth Management

Long Term Planning

Insurance Planning

Estate Planning Strategies

Tax Advantages

Portfolio Analysis and Monitoring

Seminars

Seminars TBA.

The Consultants

ACFCU is proud to announce our partnership with Quality Financial Concepts, which is an experienced advisor group that has been serving East Tennessee for more than a decade.

Leading QFC is Doug Horn, CFP, a 30 year veteran of financial services and investment management. Doug is a Certified Financial Planner, a Registered Investment Advisor, and a past-president of the East Tennessee Chapter of the National Financial Planning Association.

Working closely with Doug is his associate, Shane Smith. Shane holds his Series 7, 66, and 24 licenses and is a CFP candidate. Shane earned his bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and has been with QFC for two years.

For more information call us at 800-378-3778.

Articles By Our Financial Advisors

How to Invest Conservatively

By: Doug Horn, CFP

Quality Financial Concepts

October 2013

Advisors have an important role in providing realistic expectations and appropriate allocations for the investors they represent. This can be done by taking their years of experience and providing sound direction to the investor, even when the investor may be unfamiliar with or doubt the method. Or, they can present a solution to the investor which may be more readily accepted by the investor, even though it may not be the best option to achieve their desired results.

Generally, investing conservatively has the connotation and often the expectation bonds or fixed income type investments are the solution. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The advisor must also consider the markets, economic conditions, political environment, interest rates, and reasonable expectation for near term and longer term economic direction and potential events.

The first rule I apply is diversification by diversifying the type of investments as well as the types of risks undertaken. Purchasing two or more bond funds does not provide the diversification I am seeking. While there are two or more fund companies, the investments held will react similarly to market changes and therefore do little to diversify the investor’s risks. Bonds and bond funds are subject to interest rate risk. So, if rates fall, then the entire portfolio would go up in value, since the value of bonds moves in the opposite direction of interest rate changes. For the last ten years or so, interest rates have been falling and creating a very desirable environment to invest in bonds. However in my opinion, at this time interest rates have far less chance of falling farther than they have to increase. In fact from March through August of 2013, the value of most bond funds dropped with the 10 year Treasury interest rates moving up only slightly.

To invest conservatively and achieve adequate diversification including diversifying the types of risk investors are likely to encounter, I like to make sure my investors have allocations in cash, bonds, equities, and real estate. More aggressive investors will have less cash and bonds, while more conservative investors will have greater amounts of these types of holdings. I also like to use what I have termed BE funds. These are mutual funds which invest in both bonds and equities. The advisors to the funds then monitor the economic conditions and automatically shift the investments within the funds to more or less equities as conditions warrant.

For more conservative investors, I will also select different types of equity funds. Just because an investor is conservative does not imply they should avoid all equities. There are many equity funds that are appropriate for conservative investors when used in moderation. Many of these funds invest in domestic companies, which many pay quarterly dividends. The importance is creating an allocation which has the conservative investor in cash, bonds, equities, and real estate.

I hope the above information is educational and beneficial.

If you would like us to review your investment allocation, please contact us at (888)565-3094 to schedule an appointment. To reallocate your portfolio, we can meet face-to-face or assist you by phone as well. We are eager to meet each of you in person and look forward to that opportunity. In today’s interest rate environment, rates are expected to gradually rise during the next year or two. Thus, I expect fixed income securities or bond funds to underperform and potentially lose value as rates move up to a more ‘normal’ range.

We are proud to offer investment service in partnership with CUE Financial / Foothill Securities LLC.You may visit CUE Financial's web site at www.cuefinancial.com

Advisory and Insurance services are offered through CUE Financial Group, Inc., a SEC Registered Investment Advisor and General Insurance Agency. Securities are offered through Foothill Securities, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Offices of CUE and Foothill are located in certain branches of ACFCU and offer products and services by Agreement. These are not products of ACFCU; are not insured by any Federal agency and are subject to investment risks, including possible loss of principal invested.